3 localization essentials: how to adapt and refine your message

I love you. Je t’aime. Ich liebe dich. Ti amo. Kocham Cię. The same phrase, different forms. And despite the fact that everyone understands it in English, he will still prefer to hear it in his native language.

Unfortunately, since the Babel times, we do not speak the universal language. Though, English pretends to become the one, it cannot completely cover all the sociocultural nuances. Not to say that from time to time we even lack some words to express ourselves in the native language. Meanwhile, in other languages are some idioms and word combinations, which simply can’t be translated. Maximum – paraphrased or explained in other words, yet not always.

So, how to close that sociocultural gap? Especially, if you desperately need to localize some piece of content? For example, if you are a pharma marketer sitting in San Francisco and have a task to market your product in Shanghai, Oslo, Berlin and so on? Well, and when all those stereotypes are just crashing the whole process. What’s more, what to do if your budgets are not that flexible?

What content do people like on local markets?

While you are trying to get rid of that headache, stats are cruel. Have a look at these numbers to get the idea, why:

Thus, a dedicated marketer is scrambling between the demanding customers and challenges, appearing in front of him. Any way out? Sure, otherwise we wouldn’t have even started to talk about that. We have prepared three must-have aspects of any successful localization, which will launch your product on local markets faster without heavy investments on digital content updates.

Make sure the translation to the chosen language is of the highest quality

First comes the word, indeed. So, you may start with translating your digital content to the target language. We strongly recommend to have a native speaker at least as a proofreader of your materials. That will allow avoiding uncomfortable discrepancies, which may appear in the final translation.

And the good news for pharma marketers is that if you need to translate global HTML5 presentations, you may do it 4 times faster with eWizard platform. This cloud solution enables not easy content flow across team and departments. It also combines several options for localizing content.

The first one is to translate all the texts in-house, right within the platform itself. Could you ever have imagined that you will be able to do it directly on the interactive slides? We neither, so it’s a kind of real magic.

In case you don’t have a person, who speaks the target language, among your employees, then the other option is sending the presentation link to the external independent translator or translation agency. They’ll be able to edit it online as well. If you do not trust them for some reasons, you may choose exporting the eDetailer texts to the Excel file and upload them back upon the ready translation provided. And the magic continues – all the texts in the presentation will be updated automatically!

Going beyond translation or it’s all about cultural nuances

Here, the next step comes – adapting design and imagery, as well as navigation. You won’t keep European people on slides for East Asians, will you? Likewise, you may change the swipe direction for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and other languages, which are written and read from the right to the left.

Actually, you can do all those tiny things in eWizard as well! It’s handy functionality enables seamless images, videos replacement, and you can even change the color scheme, as well as navigation, if you need to.

Take care of the technical side – adapt digital content to all channels and platforms used

Finally, when the content is ready, you must consider the possible diversity of tools, devices and channels, used by your affiliates. Before sending your interactive materials to fields, you will need to handle all the technical aspects. These are like adapting the presentation to iOS or Android tablets, CLM/CRM systems or remote communication channels.

Previously, the technical adaptation used to require lots of re-coding, which slowed the localization and consumed huge budgets. Currently, with eWizard arrival, you can set up everything in a matter of minutes and publish the ready-made eDetailer to the target system in a single click. Sounds great, right?

To wrap it up: localization is a must, but not a tough nut

Running a successful global-to-local campaign can obviously improve customers’ love for your brand. Yet, launching global initiatives on local markets is a good challenge indeed. Until you choose a right strategy alongside with the proper tech solutions. Then you are doomed to succeed. So, to get more ideas of how the localization process can be optimized with the pack of tools, drop us a line, and we’ll gladly share some practical insights with you!